Pages

Saturday, April 28, 2012

The path to nowhere gets an extension!

Originally I just planted a large triangle of bushy plants around the base of the lychee tree. As I live in the tropics they grew, and grew. I put in a small path to get some access for trimming back, but never really liked the look of it - my little path to nowhere. My grandson loves to rush through the garden and hide in "the forest", but at the end of the path he didn't stop, and I wondered how many plants were getting trampled.
This ANZAC day was a holiday from work, and as we sat with our morning coffee looking out at the garden I just knew that I was going to have to forge a new pathway through the forest. The entrance was to be to the left of this photo.... jungle busting stuff.

This is the entrance to the path at the other side. I took the franzipani out of there - it didn't like all the shade, and moved the beehive ginger there - giving it more room to spread. This was originally the path to nowhere - it just ended....

One of the objectives was to have access to all the plants for trimming, cutting back overgrown branches and simply admiring pretty flowers close up. I removed one big red ginger plant, and after that the path found its way, with me tying plants back or moving them over just a little bit to one side. Then I discovered that there were still large areas that had that dreadful landscape fabric underneath them! What a silly thing that was to do! Lots of tugging, digging, standing in knee deep mulch, but I think I now have most of the fabric removed from the entire garden. Originally I had thought the plants would develop roots underneath the fabric if I planted them into a hole, but that didn't work. The soil is lovely though - wormy and moist and the mulch is woodsy and full of mycellium. The landscape fabric has now found a home in the veggie garden path - it does a great job there. I throw non flowering weeds onto it and they dry and shrivel up and then can be put into the compost. This is the first part of the path....

Once the basic path was completed I thought about what the edges would be. I do have lots of mondo grass so the edge closest to the tree is mondo. I hope I am not over-using it in the garden, but I do love the edge that it provides and it works so well in my shady garden. I tried some of the variegated mondo, but it is really struggling. In the photo below you can see the middle part of the path viewed from the back fence. On the edge furthest from the tree - the outside edge of the curve - I have put a few bricks. I love the solid edge this has brought into the garden, and the ground is built up a bit behind it, creating a sunken path effect. I am not sure if I can get the same bricks to finish that edge. I did a bit of a repeating pattern of some cordelines and bromeliads, and filled in some areas with ground orchids, ferns and coleus.

Here you see the path as it leads out to the big gates.

I laid cardboard over the path and then a layer of gravel - voila! While I was working there I noticed so many butterflies flitting around as they traveled from the geisha girl out the back to the ixora in the front. I think my new path might have to be called butterfly alley :)

18 comments:

Lovin' your path, AA! And your jungle is fantastic. I'm with you on hatin' the landscape fabric. Had to remove oodles of that stuff in my last garden. Will NEVER use it anywhere again! Its corrugated boxes and newspaper for me now.

Floridagirl, thanks...I often mull over a project for a while and then wonder why it took me so long! that landscape fabric so easy to lay down and then so hard to pull up once everything is planted on top of it.

Wow, wonderful pathway and your garden looks SO tropical and quite different from ours☆☆☆ Love to read that you might call your new path butterfly alley; they are beautifully flitting as if geisha girl♬♬♬

Love you always, xoxo Miyako*

PS> So sorry for my belated comment. It has been hectic several days for me. I haven't commented for my friends (^_^;)

The pathway looks great and the mondo grass is a nice border touch, i love it also so i don't think its being overused...i have a jungle in my back yard and i'm really afraid to go to those untamed areas.

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me

Photos lost

You will notice that in some of my older posts the photos have been lost. I am sooo sorry. I have left them there because they still contain a lot of good information. Where appropriate I will slowly begin adding in more photos, so hang in there!

Other places to find me......

Quotes I enjoy

Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables, they probably get jet-lagged, just like people do - Elizabeth Berry

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" Philippians 4:6-7

The secret of happiness is not found in seeking more,

but in developing the capacity to enjoy less

- paraphrased from Socrates quote

“See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.” – Mother Teresa

Nature in all its diversity grants us a glimpse into the heart of God the Father which is nothing but Love.

It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you seeHendry David Thoreau

Making a garden is not a gentle hobby for the elderly,to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole, and once it has done so he will have to acceptthat his life is going to be radically changed. May SartonPlant Dreaming Deep, 1983

When the trees sing,It doesn't really matterIf you know the song, Or if you know the words,Or even if you know the tune.What really matters is knowing ....That the trees are singing at all.Mattie Stepanek, 1990-2004

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walkor an evening saunter;to be thrilled by the stars at night:to be elated over a bird's nestor a wildflower in spring... these are some of the rewards of the simple life.John Burroughs, 1837-1921

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder…”– Thoreau

“Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it I wash my mouth out with chocolate.” ~ Charles M. Schulz

You who walkmaybe with troubled thoughts....Come, enter here and restand may the sweet serenityof growing things....and the heavenly peacebe mirrored in thy soul.by Michael Palmer

Gods GardenThe Lord God planted a gardenIn the first white days of the world,And he set there an angel wardenIn a garment of light enfurled.So near to the peace of HeavenThat the hawk might nest with the wren,For there in the cool of the evenGod walked with the first of men.And I dream that these garden closesWith their shade and their sun-flecked sodAnd their lilies and bowers of roses,Were laid by the hand of God.The kiss of the sun for pardon,The song of the birds for mirth, -One is nearer God’s heart in a gardenThan anywhere else on earth.For He broke it for us in a gardenUnder the olive-treesWhere the angel of strength was the wardenAnd the soul of the world found ease.Dorothy Francis Gurney

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.Mary Jean Iron

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.Albert Einstein

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time."~ John Lubbock******************************************************